December 11, 2019 | UHCL Staff
University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Bayou Theater is presenting the work of NASA and the Houston Cinema Arts Society’s 5th Annual CineSpace competition on Monday, Dec. 16, from 7-9 p.m.
CineSpace, a collaboration between the two organizations, is a short film competition that allows filmmakers from around the world a chance to share their work inspired by, and using, actual NASA imagery.
This special screening at UHCL’s Bayou Theater will feature the films from the finalists, and showcase the winning films that were announced during the CineSpace 2019 competition held at Rice Media Center last month.
Carlos Fontanot, International Space Station imagery manager at NASA, said that he is among six jurors who receive and evaluate the film submissions. “We look for well-made films with good filmmaking qualities and good editing,” he said. “Each film must contain at least 10 percent of NASA film footage and it must be less than 10 minutes in length. Other than that, it can be in any genre. We have had documentaries, comedies, science fiction and animated films.”
He added that the film doesn’t even necessarily need to be about a “space” story as long as it fits the competition’s guidelines. “It’s just new and fresh films every year, like with the Oscars,” he said. “We have (Texas filmmaker and actor) Richard Linklater select the first, second and third place winners.”
First place in the competition was awarded to “The Most Ideal Place,” by David Regos
of Brooklyn, New York; second place was awarded to “The Only Home We Will Ever Know,”
by Matthew Pomerantz of Baltimore, Maryland; and Susan Carol Davis of Denton, Texas
took third place for “Mack Minded: Humanly Possible.”
Films that won in special categories, including Best Documentary and Best Use of Unusual
or Obscure NASA Imagery will also be showcased in the evening’s presentation.
This year, filmmakers from 40 countries submitted 214 films; 15 were selected as finalists competing for $26,000 in cash and prizes. Professional and aspiring filmmakers are invited to submit their work for the 2020 CineSpace competition.
For more information, visit www.cinespace.org. To RSVP for the event, visit https://cinespace_uhcl.eventbrite.com
